Conventional advertisements play at prearranged commercial breaks and are severely limited in their interactivity. Content from streaming websites often contains at least one advertisement break when one or more advertisements are played back. Often, these advertisements repeat as conventional systems fail to tailor the advertisements to the particular user viewing the advertisement. Further, the advertisements in conventional streaming content have limited interactive elements, including, for example, skipping an advertisement or clicking a hyperlink to take you to a separate website.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0282285 to Thomas discloses a method of substituting pause-time content in place of media that is paused. Among other things, Thomas does not disclose analyzing the media content and user data to queue advertisements to over-the-top (OTT) internet signals. Additionally, Thomas does not contemplate the use of interactive advertisements that can work with a single user device or cooperatively with multiple user devices to receive user input and execute transactions directly from the interactive advertisement.
U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2004/0034874 A1 to Hord discloses advertisement playback during trick mode functionality. However, Hord does not disclose the delivery of interactive advertisements. Further, Hord does not disclose the queuing of advertisements prior to advertisement playback based on user data, media data, and advertisement data.
Similarly to Hord, U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2007/0162951 A1 to Rashkovskly discloses advertisement playback during paused content. However, Rashkovskly does not disclose the delivery of interactive advertisements. As with Hord, Rashkovskly also does not disclose the queuing of advertisements prior to advertisement playback based on user data, media data, and advertisement data.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,775,256 to Rosenberg discloses a hardware implementation of pause ads and content delivery. Rosenberg integrates advertisement delivery into a piece of hardware (e.g., a set top box/device), and advertisements are served to that device and displayed from that device. However, Rosenberg does not contemplate the delivery of conventional and/or interactive advertisements through software-based mediums, including, for example, audio delivery applications, long form content applications, and gaming applications.
Thomas, Hord, Rashkovskly, Rosenberg, and all other extrinsic materials discussed herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual extrinsic material was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
Conventional advertisement systems can be improved by using user data, media data, and advertisement data to select one or more advertisements for playback during a partial or complete pause in media playback. By using a wider array of data to make advertisement playback decisions, the present invention is an improvement over the prior art because it allows highly user and media-relevant advertisements to be played back during a partial or complete pause in media playback.
Thus, there is still a need for systems and methods for improving advertisement playback based on user data, media data, and advertisement data.